Vacations Workout Update: Week Recap

This week I did pretty well. I worked out every day this weekend and this week I worked in some way almost every day. Last night I went to town lake with Harry and Janet. It was so smokey and dusty out there it was probably not a good plan.

Diet wise I am doing pretty well. I have a yogurt and granola every morning with back tea. In the afternoon babybel cheese with crackers and for a snack I have a small able and Greek yogurt. Dinner this week was not unhealthy, but it's probably the reason I am not loosing pounds.

Tuesday night I had a Junior League event so I ate some fruit and stuff they had there. Then Wednesday I cooked fro some of my JLA friends. I made fresh pea pesto crustini:

Then I made broccoli risotto:

Source

 

We had a great salad and s fruit tart as well. Supper fun night really. And sort of healthy. Operative words being, sort of.

Then last night I worked out with Janet and got home around 830. Stuffed my face full of leftover risotto and a piece of wedding cake. Woops.

Tonight I am going to my first BUNCO night with the girls. I have no idea what it is but I am sure I will be fun!

Have a great weekend and please keep in mind those who gave their lives for our country on September 11th and since then. I will never forget where I was on that day  and I hope none of us ever forget.

Vacation Workout Update: It was the weekend

I worked out every day this weekend. Mr. A and I took the pup to the lake and we went to the gym.

I ate very well except for Sunday night, when I went to town on dinner at TRIO at the Four Seasons's hotel for our 1st anniversary. More on that later.

Today I am eating my usual healthy breakfast and lunch and then for dinner I am going to probably have a frozen meal after my first JLA meeting. It's not ideal but it will work.

Trying to keep it up!

2 Posts, One Day. 21 Day Challenge Begins

As of today I have 21 days to get my butt in shape for our anniversary trip to Italy. I can’t wait for the trip and I know I am going to eat my face off whilst there so to counteract this I am going to challenge myself to do some sort of workout every single day until then.  My first anniversary is this weekend and officially since my wedding day I have only gained 10 lbs, but the muscle and definition I worked so hard for is all gone. Time to take things up a notch around here.

Here is my plan:

60 minutes of exercise every day. This can be lifting weights, yoga, swimming, walking the pup, walking my office hallways, taking a jog at lunch (even though it is 1,000 here) or anything else I can think of to get my butt in gear. 

Three healthy meals a day and one light dessert. This is where I will be challenged, but I know I can do it. All of my meals will be good healthy vitamin rich meals. I will report to this blog every day to tell you what I have had that day. Kind of like a weight watchers notebook type thing.

You might be asking yourself why I am being so crazy. Clearly if you are asking this you are not really my friend.

I am working hard to fit into my cute honeymoon bathing suits and dresses. I want to feel beautiful in all the outfits I got for my honeymoon. I don’t want to ever think about how bad a meal is for me when I am in Italy; I want to eat with no regrets or hesitation. Plus, Italian women are gorgeous, and I want to be able to keep up.

So there you have it, I have put this out there for the world to see. Now to take action:

Day 1

Workout – Sand Volleyball with friends at Zilker Park

Breakfast – Yoplait 100 calorie pack of yogurt and ½ a serving of granola with wheat germ

Lunch – Baby carrots, small granny smith apple, 100 calorie pack of Greek yogurt with honey and 2 wheels of baby belle low fat cheese

Dinner – Unknown quite yet, but the plan is a veggie burger with thin bun and veggies. Maybe some pirate’s booty and some strawberries to end the night. Ohh with fat free whipped cream and neutella! This is all fairly healthy dammit, I get my neutella!

How to ruin your night right before you go to bed...

Try on your bridesmaids dress so your husband can approve/tell you you look pretty for the wedding you are in NEXT FRIDAY and realize that it has been taken in just a smidgen too much (or worse you have eaten one to many times at Enchiladas y Mas) and now you have to drop weight and quick!

How's that for a run on sentence!?

Anyway, I am now in crash diet mode to make sure I don't look like a stuffed sausage in the wedding pictures. I feel it is my duty to look cute for my friends wedding. Dammit! What do I do? How do I drop 5 pounds in a week!?

Ironic thing is, I bought the long flowing maxi dress so I could hide the fact that I am not at "fighting weight" anymore. Weight Watchers FAIL...

Skinny is My New Fat

About 2 years ago I stared my WW's journey with my good friend Kelly. I weighed about 165 pounds and was a size 10. I never thought of myself as FAT per se, but I knew I was not as skinny as I was when I moved to Austin. On weight watchers over the course of a year I lost a total of 30 pounds. I am now a size 4 or 6 depending on the store. I feel so much better and I am so proud that I have been able to keep the weight off for another year. On top of that with my injury I was not able to keep up my workouts and I still only ever gained about 5 pounds back.

For my wedding I of course stepped up the weight loss and working out. I will be the first to admit I was a little too stressed out and I lost another 10 pounds and was a size 2, I was for sure really super skinny. I have never shot for that kind of weight loss and I never really thought I would maintain that weight long term. But I will also be the first to admit I freaking LOVED being a skinny bitch. I have never felt sexier or more comfortable in my body.

As a result I went out bought lots of new clothes for my honeymoon (let's face it we all use the excuse to buy a whole new wardrobe). Well this weekend I took all of those clothes out of winter storage this weekend and CRAP I feel fat now. I weight my goal weight that I had set two years ago. I work out and eat right but still feel horrible about myself in these beautiful clothes!

So now we come to the title of this post, what was once skinny to me is now kinda "fat". Not that 135 pounds is fat by any means but man! So I am going to be working out as much as possible and eating even better. I will be tracking my weight watchers points and gosh darn it I will fit into my honeymoon clothes again!

PS - we have a big announcement that will make this post make even more sense! :-)

Me about a week before I started WW's.

At my first goal weight. I felt so skinny back then.

Me at my most skinny. I can't find many pictures of me other then from my wedding from then. If I had only known I would have been naked all the time.

Gratuitous skinny shot of me in a wedding dress. I know.

Confession - Don't Judge Me

I know now that my wedding dress already does not zip and/or button all the way up. I have been married for just over 65 days. I am very sad about this. I am going back to the gym tomorrow. I am sad and now I am fat.  Weird thing is I have not really gained much weight, guess I am just out of shape already.

PS - Don't ask me how I know my wedding dress does not fit. It is not like I put it on tonight while Mr. A was out of town and danced around in my living room alone. I totally did not do anything like that. That would be super weird of me. 

PPS - I am hoping this issue is really caused by the fact I am not double jointed and putting my wedding dress alone does not really work. I have like three layers of buttons and hooks on that thing. Yea that is why it does not fit, not because I am getting fat. Dammit. 

Weight Watchers Wednesday

So I have decided I need to make some diet adjustments in order to get to my goal weight. I have already be hovering at my official Wight Watchers goal weight for about 8 months. I have yet to weigh in at this weight and that is really annoying but I digress... I want too loose another 5 lbs on top of this. Then I need to tone up my arms and rest of my body for the wedding and honeymoon. Phase one (due to injury) will be focused on diet.

Other than weekends, where I save all my splurge points to use, I never go over my points. I usually have about the same meal for breakfast and lunch with the same snack everyday. Very little verity. Then for dinner I have a weight watchers friendly meal and a few cookies for desert with tea. I drink gallons of water throughout the day. I have heard eating the same thing everyday is not good for you as your body gets "used" to this. Is this true? I have read that in order to really loose weight I have to first cut carbs a bit (and that blows) and then stop having my big meal late night. I should instead make lunch my bigger meal. Many of you are in great shape and I thought you would have some information about this.

What is the best way to really kick my diet in gear to get these last few pounds off?

Weight Watchers Wednesday

Went to WW last night and had a great meeting. I am only down .2 pounds but hey I will take that after my lack of working out and over eating this weekend. WF and I have been trying to encourage each other to keep moving and eating healthy but when you are at Alamo Draft House for dinner all that crap goes out the window.

Source

I consumed a bucket of beer, potato skins with sour cream, goat cheese salad (which I only had because I then could justify having the following) a malt Oreo milkshake with whipped cream. A-W-E-S-O-M-E. Seriously I think that one meal caused me to revers a months work of WW efforts. But it is ok because I still lost. I guess that is the bright side. And I totally think it was worth it to have a super fun date night. 

On the other hand I have been within .5 pounds of my freaking official goal weight for lifetime for about 6 months. It is time to make this shit happen don't you think? So this week I WILL eat healthy and I WILL work out and I WILL make goal on Tuesday at my meeting dammit. 

Unless of course I get distracted at the Ale-ymics (of which I will blog about later this week to tell you about the awesomeness that is going to happen this weekend) this weekend by all the shiny beer cans and queso... 

Weight Watchers Wednesday

Source

This week I am beginning again. I have been on Weight Watchers for a year this week! I have lost about 20 pounds. I am getting married in less than six months and it is time yet again for me to get my butt in gear. I have begun actively counting my points and tracking my activity. I am looking into joining a gym, but I am not totally sold on not just being able to do what I need to do at my apartment gym and walking my dog. I would like to loose 6 pounds in 6 months. That is TOTALLY doable. So I am also going to be working on other parts of my health as well. 

My goal is to do more strength training to tone and lean out my body. I am going to drink less, see this post, I clearly need to work on that. I am going to try and set up a skin regimen to clear up and even out my skin tone. I am also going to try to cut out soda again. This is something I did last year and I could feel the difference. Slowly I have picked up the habit again and I think it is time to kick that habit once and for all.

So to help with holding me accountable for my actions I am going to attempt to post my goals and successes here. Hopefully knowing that all of you are out there judging me will (I hope) keep me in line. Goals for this week:

1) To walk my dog three times for at least 45 minutes to an hour.
2) Weigh in next week at -.5 pounds. I know it does not seem like a lot but gosh these last 5 pounds are killing me.

Check in with me and ask me how I am doing. I need the help!

Confession

I just ate a really healthy asparagus soup with whole wheat toast for dinner. To reward myself I thought, I will have a treat for dessert. I made my self some hot coco thinking, "I was so good today, I want something sweet". I then proceeded to eat half a bag of marshmallows with it. Counter productive? I think so.

I am now going to throw up... Weight Watchers FAIL.

Weight Watchers Wednesday (Thursday)

I forgot to post about WW yesterday so I thought I would give you the LD on my status. The good news is, as of now I have lost the 3 pounds of holiday weight I gained. I have worked out twice this week and am planning on two more work outs this week. This is a huge accomplishment for me and therefor I must brag.

I had my friend Whitney over for dinner last night. She just finished planning her wedding and offered to come over and listen to me vent and settle some ideas. I made her dinner in exchange for her services. I made a WW "Greek Penne Pasta" and altered it just a bit.

Source

I used whole wheat pasta, spinach, red onions, almonds, garlic and olive oil. It was super yummy. You can find the full recipe on WW if you just put in "Greek Penne Pasta". 5 points well spent.

After dinner and some wonderful red wine Whitney helped me figure out lots of stuff. With your help (thanks so much) and hers I have decided I want to go with the long tables and some variation of the original floral plan I chose. I am going to go with the florist I "vibe" with the most because that is going to be better in the long run. She also helped me figure out some other small details like place cards and lighting options. I am still not sold on having a DJ at the wedding over just using an iPod over the house sound system, but she was really helpful on that issue as well. On Saturday I get to go try on my actual wedding dress! It came in!!!!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!!!! I am super pumped about this and will let you all know how it goes.  Happ WWW on Thursday!

Weight Watchers Wednesday

Yeah I am going to hop on that bandwagon, deal.

Anyway, I weighed in officially for the first time this year. I actually was not as bad as I thought I would be. I only gained a total of 3 pounds, no to bad considering towards the end of the holiday season I was eating Chick Fil-A like it was my job. I also considered a half a block of Monchego cheese just a snack before eating a whole bag of cookies. So yea 3 pounds was not too bad.

I love the women that go to the meetings and last night was no exception. Last night's topic was about the importance of writing down everything you eat. One of the best comments was made while we were talking about the greatness that is Costco on Sundays. All of us agreed it was amazing you could go in there starving and walk out stuffed for absolutely no points, because well snacking does not count. One of the ladies then proceeded to say, "I figure I am walking, so it counter acts the fifth round of crab dip" LOVE IT.

This week I have already made Gina's WW Chicken Parm for WF and I. It came out so yummy. He even said he would pick that over the one at Olive Garden (I am pretty sure he was trying to score, but I am shallow that way). I made cheese ravioli with peas and shallots last night. Only 7 points! Not too bad. Tonight I am thinking I will be winging it but maybe some sort of fish dinner. I will let you know what I come up with. Is anyone else doing WW anymore?

Terrified

(Source)

Two of my bridesmaids have decided they would like to kick my ass tonight and I am a bit scared. Kelly and Janet both work out quite a bit. Kelly is some sort of freak Olympic swimmer who on her off days lifts weights and runs. REALLY? And then there is Janet, who is like 10 feet tall, looks like a model and kicks some ass at the gym on a regular basis while still looking totally hot. REALLY? REALLY?? Then of course there is me. I have not gone to the gym in a year. Yes I know it is shameful but that is how I roll. I used to walk my dog at town lake almost 4 times a week but now nothing. I got on WW, lost almost 19 pounds and was like well this is MUCH easier than going to then gym. So I gave up on the gym totally. Well now i have gained 4 lbs back, and have totally hit a wall. I know it and so does my butt.

Well with my last post on their minds Kelly and Janet have decided to "help" me get back on track. We are meeting at my apartment's gym, that by the way is super nice and brand new. They are going to show me how to really kick some butt. We will see if I can walk tomorrow...

Confession

I am slowly falling off the Weight Watchers bandwagon. Since Thanksgiving I have gained 3 to 4 pounds from my lowest weight. I am feeling really out of control and I am terrified of being coming the "fat" girl I was a once point about a year ago.

This weekend I have done nothing to help my situation. I ate cookies, pancakes, pei wei and lots of my moms wonderful pumpkin cranberry bread. Even with me knowing my weight is slowly creeping back up I have done NOTHING to get back on the band wagon. With wedding planning, holiday parties, friends birthdays and so much else this month I am worried I wont be able to get back to a WW meeting to get me back on the wagon like I normally do before the New Year.

I am so scared.

Weight Watchers Sin

In keeping with my religious theme I want to talk about my overwhelming guilt. (I am catholic, what are you gunna do? or as some of you know from last night a sort of Catholic) I woke up this morning feeling horribly guilty. Let me start off by saying I weighed in at exactly one pound away from my goal weight! Yeah me. So to celebrate, I went to the Austin Blogger Happy Hour.

Well in chatting and loosing myself in all the great girls that were there I lost all control of my mouth. I ordered a frozen margarita, queso, and flour tortillas. Things I have not eaten in MONTHS. I ate them all. It was wonderful and delicious and totally sinful. I feel so guilty about this today. Ugh I know I need to just get over it but I don't know why I thought celebrating my weight loss should equal consuming massive amounts of calories and fat. But in my own little world last night this was a wonderful idea.

I am going to just blame it on my sister. She had her baby yesterday! A baby boy, no name yet. He was just over 5 pounds and seems to be pretty healthy. My sister is doing really well and I can't wait to go see them both this weekend for Halloween. And again my guilt come back over me because I did not go see her in Houston last night, instead I drank and told wildly inappropriate stories about WF. What is wrong with me? Seriously?

Ladies, I had a wonderful time with you last night! I am excited about the next HH. BUT the next time I think I will order my usual MGD 64 and snack on a veggie plate. Maybe I will be a more well behaved Yankee :)

Weight Watchers Prayer

This morning I weighed in at one pound under my goal weight. Please god let today be the day when I finally weight in at my goal weight! I think I might give my left arm to have those 5 extra maintenance points a day. I wrote to you all about my goal to loose 5 pounds in 5 weeks. As of now I am down about 2. I am working hard to feel fabulous!

In the interest of loosing weight I wanted to share one of my favorite weight loss tricks. Fiber One chocolate chip granola bars. They are only 2 points on WW and worth 100. They fill me up for hours and they always make me drink so much water. I have one every afternoon around 3 when I get my usual sweet craving. They hold me over and I feel are a great trick for everyone like me who crave something sweet!

Ugh. I want this so bad! Maybe if I hit my goal this week I can even stop by the blogger happy hour for a little rita celebration! :) Wish me luck ladies.

UPDATE: Dear woman who keeps offering me halloween candy. I hate you. Love, Christine

5 Weeks 5 Pounds

So Fiance and I have our engagement pictures in 5 weeks. Actually a little more like 4 but 5 in 5 just sounds better. I want to look really healthy and happy in those pictures. I have been working hard to loose weight but I have totally stalled out. I need to get my butt in gear, literally. I will be so mad at myself if I don't look the best I can in these pictures. I am going to start myself on a work out routine and I am going to try my hardest to hit my goal weight and a bit more before Nov. 22nd. WW hard core with a combination of working out and just saying no to snacking. If I have to I will go to a WW meeting every day from now until then darnit.

We have not yet chosen out location for the shoot yet. But I am hoping rustic, elegant and maybe a little South Congress in there. Something like a combination of these pictures:

(South Congress Ave. Austin TX)

(Mandola's Winery, Dripping Springs)

(Texas Hill County)

I really want our pictures to reflect who we are together. I really want us to look super hot in these pictures as well. I need lots of support and I need lots of reminders of why I will be working so hard to loose 5 pounds in 5 weeks. Thanks guys!

I am just a fat kid in a (now) skinny girl's body

So as you know I moved here to Austin after college. I was a college cheerleader and was always fairly thin and in shape all in all now looking back, I was kinda a hottie (not bragging but I totally wish I looked like that now).When I moved here though, I was introduced to the wonderfulness that is queso. My weight gain begins there. From that point on, margaritas, burritos, BBQ, frito pie and anything fried were quickly added to my food catalog while coincidentally completely eliminating any walking at all, to anything, EVER. I quickly added about 15 lbs in a year. OK that's kinda normal for office workers and college grads. But then I met Fiance, and my fascination with wataburger began. I LOVE wataburger. I would get on maybe a twice weekly basis a #1 with cheese and ketchup only (notice how I eliminate all vegetables from that) and sub a large chocolate shake in for a drink. COME ON! That's amazing. But hence I gained maybe another 20 lbs in the first year of dating.
So now we are here, September 2009. Since March I have been eating nothing but healthy breakfasts and lunches, with the occasional splurge here and there. I mostly cook all of our dinners from scratch and I don't really eat red meat anymore. I have lost about 20 lbs in total in 2009. That's a great accomplishment, I am super proud of it. BUT I am still totally a fat kid dying to get out. My cravings are getting to me more and more.Today some bitch (not really she's totally just a nice old lady in the office) brought in an array of pastries from central market. A HUGE array of everything that I dream of. Cupcakes, cinnamon buns with cream cheese frosting, muffins with real butter and the list goes on. So I hear her announce she has all of this at her desk. I first react with, no I am OK but thanks. But then I am like well maybe I can go look at the stuff, see what she has, can't be all that great. BIG mistake. I saw the cinnamon buns and I was done! I walked away three times before caving and having a quarter of one. It was A-MAZ-ING. I proceeded explained to one of my coworkers that I was now fantasizing about slathering that cream cheese frosting all over myself and/or bathing it. I love frosting, sweets all things ad for me pretty much. I am literally salivating over the idea of going over there and eating the WHOLE tray of sticky buns. What is wrong with me? I took 9 months to just loose part of what I need to loose. And I bought my wedding dress already, in the size I am NOW! What the hell?

But ohhhhh those cinnamon buns.... they are calling to me.

Dinner with great friends

So tonight I cooked dinner for my great girlfriends Kelly Wylie, Whitney (Wheeler) Black and Kelly Daniel. I think it was quite a success. The food was great and I got a chance to catch up with some great friends. It was the first time I had a chance to catch up with the new Mrs. Black and hear all about her wonderful honeymoon in Italy. While getting the lowdown on that and many other juicy details from both Kelly's.

On the menu for tonight, first an Apple and Carrot salad that turned out to be wonderful and delish. It was one weight watchers point per serving AWESOME! I of course was super liberal with my servings! The recipe goes as follows:

	2 large apple(s), 1 red and 1 green, cored, thinly sliced, cut into matchsticks
	1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, or less to taste
	3 cup(s) carrot(s), cut into matchsticks (many stores sell these precut)
	1/4 cup(s) chives, chopped
	1 tbsp olive oil
	1 tsp sugar
	1/2 tsp table salt
	1/4 tsp black pepper, or more to taste
	2 oz feta cheese, French-variety suggested, crumbled

Instructions

• Place apples in a large bowl and toss with lemon juice. Add carrots, chives, oil, sugar, salt, pepper and cheese; toss to mix thoroughly. Yields about 3/4 cup per serving.

For a second dish I tried a meal I found on Gina's Weight Watchers recipes blog. It was made with Spaghetti and Zucchini. Yummy summer pasta I loved. Here is the recipe:

Angel Hair with Zucchini and Tomatoes
Tonight I was in the mood for pasta so I decided to make something quick and light. This turned out delicious! Zucchini is a great summer vegetable and happens to be one of my favorite veggies.
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 4 servings • Time: 10 minutes • Points: 5 ww points

• 2 zucchini, julienne or cut into ribbons
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  
• 2 shallots, diced
• 3 tomatoes, diced
• 4 tsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• crushed red pepper flakes to taste
• 8 oz (1/2 lb) Barilla plus angel hair pasta
• 1/4 cup fat free chicken or vegetable broth
  

In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook pasta according to instructions.
While pasta is cooking, in a large saute pan, heat pan on medium-high flame, add oil when pan is hot. Add garlic and shallots to the pan and saute about 1 minute. Add zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Cook about 2 minutes, add tomatoes, crushed red pepper flakes, parsley, chicken broth and adjust salt and pepper. Stir for another minute. Remove from flame.
Drain pasta when done and mix well with zucchini. Serve with Parmesan.


Thanks to my wonderful assistant Kelly Daniel, who consistently said, "Why god don't you have a food processor!?" as I gave her another thing to cut. Love you!